John Moore: The wheels come off Toronto’s experiment in Tea Party politics

So now we know what a Tea Party government would look like. Fifteen Months into his administration Toronto mayor Rob Ford finds himself cornered and powerless; proof that you can’t run a government if you hate government.

Ford was buoyed into office on a crest of an angry populist wave. His supporters believed as Ronald Reagan did that government is not the answer to your problems, it is the problem. His simple proposition was that he could lance a bloated city budget, cut spoiled workers down to size and bring practical business solutions to bear thus running a world class city on a shoe string budget.

The harsh sunlight of reality has not been kind to the Ford administration. After an initial series of successes he started to lose at City Council. First it was left wing councillors –those dreaded Chardonnay sipping liberals- who smelled weakness and got up on their hind legs to kick back. Then the centrists became alienated by his bullying ways. Now even old school conservatives are putting distance between themselves and the mayor.

But what can you expect of a government run from an alternative universe? The Ford administration exists within a hard right template established by American talk radio and Fox television. People with dissenting views are the enemy. Expertise is suspect. Everything can be had for nothing. This is a world in which budgets are balanced by cutting revenues and what one knows in one’s gut trumps established facts.

To be fair Ford had a good first six months. He cut a tax, followed through on a promise to privatize garbage collection and passed a raft of small but symbolic spending cuts including canceling free muffins and coffee for council meetings. Where he hit the wall was on transit. The details are too tedious to burden a non resident with but suffice it to say the battle that proved to be Ford’s Waterloo was about subways versus light rail surface transit. Ford wanted subways. He insisted everyone wants subways. Of course he’s right but I want a pony and no-one seems to be willing to buy me one.

The money simply wasn’t there. Undaunted Ford proceeded to go to war against reality. When the head of the Transit Commission said the city couldn’t afford subways the mayor had him fired. When studies failed to support a case for subways Ford found his own study. When the financial numbers didn’t add up he simply claimed that money would magically appear once a shovel was put in the ground. At a town hall meeting he declared “You’re either with us or against us” and before council he emphatically shouted “The people of this city have spoken loud and clear, they want subways folks, they want subways, subways, subways”.

That’s the ethos of the Tea Party movement: the insistence that something can be had for nothing and the belief that government programs are a waste of money….except if one happens to be benefiting from a particular program. Rob Ford’s administration in Toronto has proven to be a controlled experiment in hard right politics in power. His no compromise approach has left him almost without allies. His rejection of expertise leaves him on the wrong side of facts and evidence. His insistence that “real people” can’t have the things they want because of downtown snobs has left a foul taste in many mouths.

And to the horror of even his dwindling supporters, this is going to go on for two and a half more years.

National Post

John Moore is host of Moore in the Morning on NewsTalk 1010 AM Toronto. He can be heard at www.newstalk1010.com